Mel Gibson's back, and he's grimly determined to wreak revenge, utilizing
every bit of firepower and brutality available in this over-the-top 'noir'
action thriller that's set in some dank, crumbling, art deco city. Gibson
plays a nasty professional thief who was shot in the back left for dead
in a garage by a double-crossing partner (Gregg Henry) and deceitful,
junkie wife (Deborah Kara Unger) after they successfully heisted $140,000
in cash from Chinese money launderers. But he's alive and determined to
pursue his perverse sense of justice, taking on a shadowy, corporate crime
syndicate known as The Outfit (Kris Kristofferson, James Coburn, William
Devane) and aided by an old girl-friend (Maria Bello), a high-priced
call-girl. All the women in this movie are sleazy and unsympathetic - but,
then again, so are all the macho men. There's lot of fighting, shooting,
and endless gratuitous violence - some quite sadistic and graphic, like
the industrial pedicure, which involves smashing toes with a sledgehammer,
and seeing a person's nose ring ripped out. In fact, the torture,
incinerations, slicing and dicing is all there is. Based on the novel,
"The Hunter" by Richard Stark, adapted by Brian Helgeland ("L.A.
Confidential," "The Postman," "Conspiracy Theory") and Terry Hayes, and
directed by Brian Helgeland, it's also a re-make of John Boorman's
"Point Blank" (1967) which starred menacing Lee Marvin. And Mel Gibson
is no Lee Marvin. Basically, Gibson's miscast, delivering a dull, portentous
narration and desperately looking for wit where none exists. On the
Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Payback" is a loud, lethal 4. It's
what they call "comic book violence" but it's so choppy, cheesy and crude
that no one's laughing.